Blogs from Houston, Texas, United States, North America
May 22nd 2012
Today I took my hard-earned babysitting cash and went to the mall on a search to find the "perfect" outfits for my trip. I spent three hours at the mall, and I suddenly came to the horrible realization that there was no way in hell I was going to fit EVERYTHING I need into one suitcase. Clothes, shoes, bath stuff, towels, a sheet set, jewelry, my laptop, and hair products all in one suitcase?! I'm only five short days away from my trip, and I now have one more thing to add to my list of worries. How much money should I be bringing? How will I find the energy to take three different flights over a two day time period to get to San Sebastian? What if I lose something important like my passport? What ... read more
April 25th 2012
Last night I attended the ALF Gala for the last time. I was the last person to leave because I just couldn't pull myself away. Everyone's generousity is so overwhelming and oddly enough I have never felt more a part of this Houston community. Houston will always be "home" and a place to come back to. I look at myself surrounded by cardboard boxes and can't even imagine my place being empty in a week. How is this going to happen? Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and the packing fairy will have it all done. Dillusions, huh?... read more
April 3rd 2012
We arrived in Houston on Monday to a warm welcome at the airport. Both Lachlan and James had grown so much since we last saw them over 15 months ago. It was a lovely to have the boys help us with our luggage, we were surprised to see 8 year old James hoisting the cases off the luggage carousel. We enjoyed being part of Louise, Colin, Lachlan and James's family life. With the boys we walked the dogs to the park, had lunch and games at Chuck E Cheese, ice creams at the local store, lots of fun. We had a very enjoyable few days with them at their lovely home in Houston before all heading off on our road trip. On Friday we left in convoy to drive the four hours to San Antonio. Louise ... read more
April 1st 2012
Well what a day! We have just got back from watching Hunter Mahan win the 2012 Shell Houston Open. The tournament is the last one before the Masters begins this week so was a chance for someone who had not qualified to make it into the first Golf Major of the year. I had bought the tickets so long ago that it all seem surreal that we were finally making our way to the Redstone Golf Club this morning. We walked for about 20 minutes from our hotel to the shuttle bus park and then it was about a 15 minute drive to the main gates where our tickets were waiting. The shuttle buses were very efficient and police stopped traffic to ensure the buses had priority all the way to the course. Walking in you ... read more
October 31st 2011
Well it's been only about 5 days but it seems like I have been here for months already! (which I am not sure if that is a good thing or not). The days have been filled with trying to learn the kids' routine and getting the children used to someone new being around. My house is pretty awesome! There is the main house and I have a small place above the garage which includes a bathroom, bedroom, living room and small kitchenette. There is also a massive yard that has a putting green, huge bbq, pool and a pool house. Today (halloween), it was +22 out, which I thought was hot and everyone else was in long pants and sweaters. We still had to use mosquito spray even!! We took the twins out for a walk ... read more
October 25th 2011
The second half of our stay in Houston seems to have gone so quickly, we can’t believe it’s over already! We are backtracking a little with this blog to go over what Jahan has been up to. During the weekend, Jahan had a friend; who lives in San Antonio, drive down to Houston to visit. They arranged for him to stay at the Crowne Plaza, so that made things nice and easy. On Saturday, the boys went to the NASA Centre which is about a 30 minute drive away. They saw the space control centre that was used for the Appollo missions, and the V5 Saturn rocket that was used to launch these missions including the Appollo 13 mission that landed on the moon. Check out the photos. Monday was a free day for the chorus, ... read more
October 17th 2011
25 hours after getting on a plane in Christchurch, we finally made it to Houston, Texas. Im not a great flyer, but somehow this trip wasn't so bad... The only problem was being extremely bored! The chorus are staying at the Crowne Plaza, complete with free internet, a pool, onsite bar and restaurant and home to our rehearsals for the next ten days. As our shuttle pulled up to the hotel, we had a singing welcome from all the other chorus members who had checked in the day before, which was heartfelt and really lovely. Day two started with an early wake up to find breakfast and then some shopping. Half the chorus had the same idea, as we found many of them at Macys. In fact, at one point, about a third of the baritone ... read more
Planning, Preperation and Getting THAT feeling again!
Published: October 12th 2011North America » United States » Texas » Houston
October 12th 2011
Well...Well...Well, It's been a while since I posted anything and wanted to just update those who are following me on things... I was in Santo Domingo working for a company in the U.S., But I was contacted by my old supervisor via facebook ( lol ) that the position I had been laid off from in 2009 was re opening ( This was in July of this year ) so I was very very low on money from the amazing time I was away traveling and decided to go back to Houston and get my old job back, at least for 6 months or so and save back up, get my TEFL and then hopefully leave for good as I cannot stand what this country has become and plus I absolutely LOVE traveling seeing all the ... read more
2nd Day in Texas: Houston
Published: December 12th 2011North America » United States » Texas » Houston
September 9th 2011
As usual for us, day 2 starts with a stop at Starbucks coffee (freaking expensive according to Adrien, but hey, we don’t have such coffee shop in Grenoble and I do not cross the ocean and travel half the way around the globe to spare $2 on a coffee). No real plan defined for the day, so, it’s gonna be a repeat from our first trip in Houston. First thing to see: Reliant Park, with the Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (Kindel, if you’re reading this, don’t forget about my belt buckle :)), and the Astrodome, well, home of nothing. Being the first dome stadium ever built, there’s something a bit historic about this building (I guess a 30 year old building can be considered as historic ... read more
1st Day in Texas: Houston
Published: December 10th 2011North America » United States » Texas » Houston
September 8th 2011
After roughly 11hrs in the Air, we finally reached our destination at 01:30 PM, local time: Houston, Tx. I don't usually have a problem with flying, except when it comes to have lunch onboard, this is beyond me. I find landing and takeoff (slightly) exciting and the rest of the flight boring. In order to make the flight go faster, I had the choice: Either go with one Margarita (My drink of choice) or some Donormyl (some over the counter drug supposed to help you sleep). They did not have Margarita mix onboard, so it was all about Donormyl from this time on...needless to say that what once worked on the way back from Vietnam did not work this time...at all. After the usual custom/immigration formalities at IAH (George Bush Intercontinental Airport ), we're good to ... read more
